Pike fishing competition at famous Offaly lake raises funds for children's hospital

PALLAS Lake Fly Fishing Club held their Annual Open Pike Fishing Competition on St Stephen's Day and in all 32 anglers attended including Junior anglers.

Some fine pike to 17lb were caught on the day with the results as follows heaviest bag -1st place Frank Keyes, 2nd place -Tommy Coffey, Joint 3rd -Pauline Cunningham and John O’Connor. Heaviest fish -Frank Keyes and the Junior Prize went to Eoghin O’Laughlin.

The competition raised a fantastic total of €580 for The Childrens Hospital, Crumlin. The Club would like to thank all that attended, and we are very grateful for the kind donations on the day to a very worthy cause.

As this was the last competition of 2024 the club would like to extend thanks to all the local landowners for their support and cooperation during 2024.

Also a special word of thanks to local Counciller Neil Feighery for supporting the upgrading of the approach road and car park.

Trout Fishing will open earlier this year on 1st of April on the lake. A lot of work was carried out on and around the lake this year, the paths around the lake were mowed and cleared, some new signage erected, weed removal took place towards the latter end of the season giving anglers access to approximately 75% of the lakes waters, cameras were erected in the car park and trail cameras are in use around the lake, the approach road to the car park has been risen and resurfaced, the car park has been tarred and chipped.

A special thanks to all the members that gave up their free time to help out on the lake during the year. Membership fees for both pike and trout fishing are due by January 31st. as with last year day tickets for non-members for trout fly fishing only will be available from Tom Doolans shop at the Blueball from1st of April until September 30 2025.

Anyone with queries relating to access to fishing can contact the following. Trout Fishing -Garrett Bergin 087 7908214 or Frank Keyes 087 7659323. Pike Fishing – Marty Lynch 089 4238842 or Pat Foran 086 3545579.

Finally a word of thanks to the staff of ESB for their continuing support of the lease on Pallas Lake, in particular Tom Moran.